Some evenings are better than others. Last night was the case. Dueling Bartenders outstanding. Tom Luna, Rick Dery, and this year’s Fantasy Fest Queen at their best.

Catherine with me. Many friends. Liz back from a Tampa Hospital. Looking better than ever! Josefina with her. Also her friend George who is visiting. A former law school Dean as was Liz. June. Joe Lyles.

Dined at the bar at Antonia’s. Lamb chops. Delicious!

Diet stuck at 20 pounds (my scale). Probably 24 on heart doctor’s. I see my internist for a physical in the morning. He will not believe the loss.

Two biggies tonight.

Syracuse/Wake Forest at 7. The first round of the ACC Tournament. Being played at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center. Syracuse should win. Has to win tonight and two more games in the tournament to have a shot at a NCAA Tournament bid.

I can watch the game at 7. When finished at 9, I shall hurry to my office to do my 9 o’clock scheduled podcast. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Everything on the agenda for discussion. Join me for a quick moving half hour of what I think about this and that. You may not agree. Guaranteed you will find it interesting, however. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Key West was the home of cigar making for more than 50 years. Nearness to Cuba the reason. Workers immigrating from Cuba to work in Key West cigar factories. Cuban tobacco considered the best in the world easily available from Havana.

Cigar making in Key West hit its zenith in 1890. Over 100 million cigars made.

There is a small cigar park behind the First State Bank Building on Simonton. Properly called Gato Park. E. H. Gato was the owner of one of the largest cigar making operations in Key West.

A cigar has stood in Gato Park for years. It needed repair. Work done. The reconstructed cigar will be unveiled at a ceremony wednesday night beginning at 5 and running to 8. Cigars, rum, and Cuban dancing on the agenda in addition to the unveiling.

The newly restored cigar sculpture is purported to be the world’s largest.

Another party friday evening. This one bigger. Going to be huge. Kate Miano’s campaign kickoff event. Kate is running for Mayor.

Six friday evening at the Gardens. Guaranteed fun.

I have been avoiding this issue. However it is time to comment. Perhaps it will generate discussion and responsive comments.

Religion is dying. No question about it. It has been gradually dying for more than 50 years. Churches, synagogues, etc. closing. Diminishing attendees.

Houses of worship today the home of the elderly. Nostalgic in their beliefs. The young at the other end of the spectrum don’t go to a church of any kind. Some do not believe. Others consider religion not relevant. More and more persons becoming atheists.

Christianity is at its root idolatry. People turn from their idols when it stops raining.

Will the drift from God and religion be cyclical? I don’t know. It should be. Most things are. Perhaps at some point man will rediscover his need for an Almighty.

I close with Three Trump items.

Trump irrationally burst out his tariff program thursday. A nonsensical position born of ignorance.

Many claim a tariff war will cost the U.S. jobs. One example has already surfaced.

Sweden’s Electrolux announced in January it was doing an expansion to its Springfield, Tennessee plant. Adding on 400,000 square feet. Cost $250 million. Work to begin in the Fall.

Following Trump’s erratic tariff announcement thursday, Electrolux announced it was putting the expansion on hold. It will not proceed till it knows the figures the Trump plan will kick out and whether it is financially feasible to proceed. Electrolux believes Trump’s decision will give an economic advantage to foreign manufacturers.

Jobs gone! No construction workers! No new employees working in the added 400,00 square feet.

The way to bring jobs back to America, Mr. President!

Electrolux likes doing business in Tennessee. It has another plant in Anderson which makes Frigidaire Freezers. Electrolux began a $200,000 million expansion of the Anderson plant one year ago. The expansion will continue as the addition is near completion.

Birds of a feather flock together. Netanyahu was in Washington yesterday visiting with Trump. Both are under investigation. We know of Trump’s problems. Netanyahu’s involve corruption, bribery, and fraud.

As Trump leads us down roads that scare me, Netanyahu is no different. He has changed Israel. In most instances, Israel is no longer the victim. It is the perpetrator.

The U.S. will be constructing a new building to serve as the new embassy in Jerusalem. It is a temporary facility. Intended to be replaced some time in the future with one containing all the knobs and fancy features.

The budget for the temporary/new embassy was submitted to Trump. One million dollars. Trump said too much. He shaved it down to $250,000.

I question how safe our embassy persons will be in the $250,000 edifice. Will sufficient safeguards exist? Will all survive an attack?

4 comments on “DUELING BARTENDERS THE BEST LAST NIGHT”

People used to have to gather in a place of worship to hear the word of their god or to understand what it all meant. Until the Renaissance, the Bible wasn’t even available to the common man. You had to get the word from a holy man (who had his own agenda).

Louis,
With everyone now connected and mobile and “fairly-well” educated, there isn’t the need to leave home to get your god-fix.

I’m sure there are studies that measure how much humans are running away/towards a belief in a higher being. So I don’t think attendance in places of worship is a true measure of a rise in atheism or agnosticism or just indifference.

Do you think it’s a bad thing that people lean more towards science and physics to explain their world view? What is the downside of that direction, in your mind? Is there an upside to people becoming more and more religious?

It’s the fact that mankind has the ability to reason that causes any of this mental gymnastics to occur at all. I’m not sure which direction is better or worse for mankind.

A while back I went to the KW Star of The Sea Catholic Church for the weekend afternoon mass in Spanish. There were not that many people there, the kid’s choir sung the hymns in Spanish and sounded beautiful. I was sitting alone about ten rows back when the priest stopped, walked to the rail, looked right at me and loudly said that if I didn’t speak Spanish[I don’t] I didn’t belong there. That was the last straw for me and the last time I was in church.

The civilian version of the AR15, “America’s Gun” anointed as such by the all powerful NRA, is not a machinegun, it is an autoloading semiautomatic weapon. That means you only get one shot for one squeeze of the trigger, 50+ times in a row if you want, as fast as you can pull it. Anyone who knows anything about guns knows that is the most certain way of hitting your target, as opposed to “spraying and praying” with a true machinegun. Even the Army preaches that. The AR15 bullet itself is the same size as the one in that old 22 rifle you shot at tin cans with, but it travels three times as fast, causing tremendous damage in the human body when it hits due to the shock wave created by it’s speed, “like getting shot with a coke can.” and have it pass through your body at high speed.

The NRA is like the preacher who speaks less about God and more about God in politics. They have been overtaken by those who are less interested in education, responsible ownership and training and more on fighting the “lefties” they feel threaten them. Pile up the bodies, children and all, it is of no concern to them.